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Call 1-866-678-9471 and ask to speak to supervisor and tell them your bill
is paid via credit card or from your bank account automatically each
month and are entitled to another 24 months of free hd...

I called a few weeks ago and was told it wasn't available anymore. I was given a monthly credit on my bill to make up for it.

Yeah, they offered that to me as well, and said they'd do it for 24 months if I switched from my grandfathered total choice to choice, but I'd lose Fuel, which isn't good to me. I may switch to choice extra, and get $25 a month off for a year, and then worry about it in a year.

the only negative about taking advantage of programming discounts is that it guts the amount of credit available in the future for things like equipment upgrades and the like. Also taking a super sweet deal (like the one you mentioned) means that future programming discounts may be unavailable to you when these expire for a period of time. Personally, I'd stick with the grandfathered package as long as you can.

Edited by Brubear, 04 December 2012 - 05:05 PM.more info

my comments and opinions are my own and do not suggest endorsement by my employer

the only negative about taking advantage of programming discounts is that it guts the amount of credit available in the future for things like equipment upgrades and the like. Also taking a super sweet deal (like the one you mentioned) means that future programming discounts may be unavailable to you when these expire for a period of time. Personally, I'd stick with the grandfathered package as long as you can.

Yeah, I see what you're saying, but we have had this same package forever, and if we take this deal, it will expire in a year, but we probably won't care about another package change at that point, or for a very long time.

Free HD for life was only offered at a specific time to new customers. Other offers to compensate existing customers amounted to up to free HD for 24 months. There is no entitlement. If you wish to remove auto pay then go for it. With or without a discount I prefer auto pay for my D* and, really, all of my bills (partially because I'm lazy like that). If discounts are important to you, see where the auto pay gets you but don't be dismayed if it gets you nowhere. Discounts are not entitled, your programming is (at least to an extent these days).

You shouldn't even have to pay for HD to begin with, seems to me it's almost like paying $10 to receive the option of color TV instead of black and white, my local cable co doesn't charge anymore for the package or the receiver to receive all the HD channels that are available as standard channels.

I'm wondering if at the next price adjustment DirecTV will eliminate this fee as a line item on the statement. Of course, it would just be merged in with everything else.

IMO, it's just stupid to have a separate fee for the HD Extra pack. Yeah, it's supposed to be because those channels don't have an SD counterpart. It's charged because they can, there's no overhead on their part for this.

How much longer will they bother with dual SD/HD feeds of the same channels?

I realize there are many, many SD-only boxes in use, but eventually, wouldn't they want to move people to HD-capable boxes, and rely on the box to downres that HD signal to SD if being used with an older SD television? I would think dropping SD channels entirely would free up transponder space such that they could provide many additional HD channels that are currently only offered in SD.

You shouldn't even have to pay for HD to begin with, seems to me it's almost like paying $10 to receive the option of color TV instead of black and white, my local cable co doesn't charge anymore for the package or the receiver to receive all the HD channels that are available as standard channels.

Sure they do, it's just not a separate charge. It's included in the monthly fee.

How much longer will they bother with dual SD/HD feeds of the same channels?

I realize there are many, many SD-only boxes in use, but eventually, wouldn't they want to move people to HD-capable boxes, and rely on the box to downres that HD signal to SD if being used with an older SD television? I would think dropping SD channels entirely would free up transponder space such that they could provide many additional HD channels that are currently only offered in SD.

How much longer will they bother with dual SD/HD feeds of the same channels?

I realize there are many, many SD-only boxes in use, but eventually, wouldn't they want to move people to HD-capable boxes, and rely on the box to downres that HD signal to SD if being used with an older SD television? I would think dropping SD channels entirely would free up transponder space such that they could provide many additional HD channels that are currently only offered in SD.

But what do I know about it?

I'm sure that they would love to, but what are you going to do for those of us who, because of LOS issues don't have access to HD service?

It's not just LOS. Just this year in an FCC filing, they said that about half of their subscriberswere SD only (I think it actually said 60% of new subscribers had HD). Some of those have HD sets, others don't.